The new model of sick building syndrome: inclusion in ASIA or Shoenfeld’s syndrome

Abstract

Dear Editor,We deeply thank Luis M. Blaso for his letter supporting ourinterpretation to include sick building syndrome (SBS) aspart of autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced byadjuvants (ASIA) [1]. While writing our paper, the findingsof Blasco et al. cited in his letter were not yet published. Itis very encouraging to be able to back up our hypothesiswith actual data on the autoimmune involvement of SBS.Since the publication of our paper on SBS as part of ASIA,a few publications concerning this syndrome, referred toalso as Shoenfeld syndrome, have supported our notionregarding the involvement of adjuvant exposure in thepathology of different autoimmune and/or autoinflamma-tory conditions [2–6]. This support from a wide variety ofevidence, data, and conceptual viewpoints helps to estab-lish ASIA as a common autoimmune or autoinflammatorycondition with environmental exposure that targets indi-viduals with specific susceptible genetic background. Weexpect that more data will accumulate to support Prof.Shoenfeld’s approach to include all five conditions, namelySBS, siliconosis, macrophagic myofascitis, Gulf War syn-drome, and postvaccination phenomena, and maybe othersas well, as part of one syndrome: ASIA.